unitaryDESIGN 2026: Build an interactive teaching tool for quantum computing

[benjimaclellan]

🎯 Bounty 1: Build an interactive teaching tool for quantum computing

Help us build an interactive teaching demo for trapped-ion quantum computing!

The gist

Building and using quantum computers towards common value will require contributions from many skillsets and people from across the globe. Yet, quantum physics—and by extension quantum computing—can often seem complicated, exotic, confusing, and more.

One of our goals at Open Quantum Design is to support the development of open-source quantum computing technologies, the quantum workforce, and broad collaborations across academia, industry, and government.

The OQD teaching demo aims to make learning about quantum computers more concrete, tactile, and fun.

---

The hardware

The demo is made of 3D printed components, low-cost hobby electronics, and open-source software. We use it at the OQD office and various events for explaining what a quantum computing stack looks like, how it operates, and what's happening under the hood of a (trapped-ion) quantum computer.

For scale, the demo is about 15cm wide and 20cm tall. The on-board screen shows the current web UI with a camera stream, laser intensity sliders, and trap position controls.

Physical components → Quantum computer analogues

Demo Component	Real Quantum Computer Equivalent	What you can control
Acoustic levitator with polystyrene balls	Electromagnetic ion trap with trapped ions	Trap position (moves all "ions" left/right)
5 red diode lasers	Control lasers that implement quantum gates	Individual laser intensities
Camera (housed above the trap)	Readout/measurement system	Capture images
3D printed vacuum chamber	Real vacuum chamber (remixed from actual OQD CAD models!)	—
Raspberry Pi GPIO	FPGA-based real-time control system	All of the above

---

The goal

We're looking for interactive applications that use the demo to teach quantum computing concepts. Your submission should build on top of our existing web app, which is built with NiceGUI and already provides:

• Live camera stream
• Laser intensity sliders
• Trap position controls

Think of this as your foundation—you can extend it, restyle it, or use it as a reference for your own implementation.

Some ideas to spark inspiration

We're open to creative directions! Here are some possibilities:

• 🎮 Quantum circuit executor — users build a digital quantum circuit and "run" it on the demo (the circuit gets compiled to laser/trap/camera commands)
• 🎲 Quantum games — check out these examples from Leiden University for inspiration
• 🎬 3D visualization — an animation showing the relationship between real trapped-ion hardware and our demo components
• 📚 Guided tutorials — step-by-step lessons that walk users through concepts like superposition, measurement, or entanglement using the physical demo

---

Requirements

Your submission should:

• ✅ Teach one or more quantum computing concepts
• ✅ Use most or all of the physical actuation abilities (lasers, trap positioning, camera)
• ✅ Be interactive — users should be doing, not just watching

---

Future collaboration opportunities

If you you have other ideas or are interested in contributing beyond the hackathon, there are lots of directions this could go:

• 🔮 Multi-qubit demonstrations and entanglement visualizations
• 🔮 Integration with OQD's real trapped-ion hardware
• 🔮 Curriculum development for educators
• 🔮 Additional game modes or difficulty levels

---

Getting started

Installation

This project is designed to run on a Raspberry Pi with hardware-related packages for controlling GPIO pins, cameras, etc. However, for unitaryDESIGN and prototyping, follow these steps for local development without access to the hardware:

The hardware-related dependencies are stored in [project.optional-dependencies], so install with:

pip install -e .

or using uv:

uv pip install -e .

⚠️ Note: uv sync will not work as it includes all optional dependencies by default.

Using mock hardware

In src/oqd_teaching_demo/gui/main.py, there's a MOCK flag. Set it to True to use a mocked version of the hardware interfaces (MockDevice).

The hardware is controlled through the Device, Lasers, Trap, and Camera classes. The mock device implements the same interface, so you can develop and test your submission without the physical hardware.

Existing code to build on

• Web UI source: src/oqd_teaching_demo/gui/ — the current NiceGUI app
• Hardware control: src/oqd_teaching_demo/control/ — device interfaces

---

Questions?

Drop a comment below or reach out to the OQD team. We're excited to see what you build! 🚀

[CodeMaverick2]

Hi @benjimaclellan @yhteoh , I've already submitted PR #5 (interactive analog quantum simulation builder) and wanted to pitch a second, complementary contribution:
Quantum Circuit Playground an interactive digital quantum circuit builder with guided tutorials.

The idea:
Users visually build quantum circuits on a grid (4 qubits × N time steps), placing gates (I, X, Z, H, CNOT) by clicking. The system then:

1. Simulates the circuit in real-time showing the quantum state vector and measurement probability bar charts (powered by a self-contained quantum state simulator using the
   same math as emulator.py)
2. Executes on hardware each gate compiles to a laser intensity pattern (qubit → laser channel), and CNOT gates trigger the trap to shake (representing ion-ion interaction
   for entanglement). Camera captures the "measurement readout"
3. Teaches through guided tutorials step-by-step lessons on Superposition (H gate), Bit Flip (X gate), Entanglement (Bell state via H+CNOT), and GHZ states (multi-qubit
   entanglement)
4. Samples measurements users can run 100/1000 simulated measurements and see a histogram of outcomes, demonstrating quantum probabilistic behavior

it complements PR #5 as that covers the analog side (Hamiltonian evolution, amplitude envelopes). This covers the digital side (discrete quantum gates, circuit model).
Together they give the demo a complete quantum computing teaching stack.

Hardware usage: All 4 red lasers (one per qubit, different intensity patterns per gate type), trap (shakes during CNOT to show ion interaction), and camera (measurement
capture). Fully interactive users build, simulate, and execute

Would love to hear your thoughts on this direction before I start building!

[learningdungeon]

Claiming Bounty 1

Hi
I’m Noor, a Qiskit Advocate. I’m claiming Bounty 1 and am currently developing an interactive teaching tool

titled: "The Trapped-Ion Grover Maze"

I am building this on top of the existing NiceGUI framework and hardware interfaces. Looking forward to submitting my PR soon.

[SecludedPerson700]

🎯 Bounty 1: Build an interactive teaching tool for quantum computing

Help us build an interactive teaching demo for trapped-ion quantum computing!

The gist

Building and using quantum computers towards common value will require contributions from many skillsets and people from across the globe. Yet, quantum physics—and by extension quantum computing—can often seem complicated, exotic, confusing, and more.

One of our goals at Open Quantum Design is to support the development of open-source quantum computing technologies, the quantum workforce, and broad collaborations across academia, industry, and government.

The OQD teaching demo aims to make learning about quantum computers more concrete, tactile, and fun.

The hardware

The demo is made of 3D printed components, low-cost hobby electronics, and open-source software. We use it at the OQD office and various events for explaining what a quantum computing stack looks like, how it operates, and what's happening under the hood of a (trapped-ion) quantum computer.

For scale, the demo is about 15cm wide and 20cm tall. The on-board screen shows the current web UI with a camera stream, laser intensity sliders, and trap position controls.

Physical components → Quantum computer analogues

Demo Component Real Quantum Computer Equivalent What you can control
Acoustic levitator with polystyrene balls Electromagnetic ion trap with trapped ions Trap position (moves all "ions" left/right)
5 red diode lasers Control lasers that implement quantum gates Individual laser intensities
Camera (housed above the trap) Readout/measurement system Capture images
3D printed vacuum chamber Real vacuum chamber (remixed from actual OQD CAD models!) —
Raspberry Pi GPIO FPGA-based real-time control system All of the above

The goal

We're looking for interactive applications that use the demo to teach quantum computing concepts. Your submission should build on top of our existing web app, which is built with NiceGUI and already provides:

• Live camera stream
• Laser intensity sliders
• Trap position controls

Think of this as your foundation—you can extend it, restyle it, or use it as a reference for your own implementation.

Some ideas to spark inspiration

We're open to creative directions! Here are some possibilities:

• 🎮 Quantum circuit executor — users build a digital quantum circuit and "run" it on the demo (the circuit gets compiled to laser/trap/camera commands)
• 🎲 Quantum games — check out these examples from Leiden University for inspiration
• 🎬 3D visualization — an animation showing the relationship between real trapped-ion hardware and our demo components
• 📚 Guided tutorials — step-by-step lessons that walk users through concepts like superposition, measurement, or entanglement using the physical demo

Requirements

Your submission should:

• ✅ Teach one or more quantum computing concepts
• ✅ Use most or all of the physical actuation abilities (lasers, trap positioning, camera)
• ✅ Be interactive — users should be doing, not just watching

Future collaboration opportunities

If you you have other ideas or are interested in contributing beyond the hackathon, there are lots of directions this could go:

• 🔮 Multi-qubit demonstrations and entanglement visualizations
• 🔮 Integration with OQD's real trapped-ion hardware
• 🔮 Curriculum development for educators
• 🔮 Additional game modes or difficulty levels

Getting started

Installation

This project is designed to run on a Raspberry Pi with hardware-related packages for controlling GPIO pins, cameras, etc. However, for unitaryDESIGN and prototyping, follow these steps for local development without access to the hardware:

The hardware-related dependencies are stored in [project.optional-dependencies], so install with:

pip install -e .
or using uv:

uv pip install -e .

⚠️ Note: uv sync will not work as it includes all optional dependencies by default.

Using mock hardware

In src/oqd_teaching_demo/gui/main.py, there's a MOCK flag. Set it to True to use a mocked version of the hardware interfaces (MockDevice).

The hardware is controlled through the Device, Lasers, Trap, and Camera classes. The mock device implements the same interface, so you can develop and test your submission without the physical hardware.

Existing code to build on

• Web UI source: src/oqd_teaching_demo/gui/ — the current NiceGUI app
• Hardware control: src/oqd_teaching_demo/control/ — device interfaces

Questions?

Drop a comment below or reach out to the OQD team. We're excited to see what you build! 🚀

I am interested in working on this challenge

[dhanaabhirajk]

Hey @benjimaclellan, I have built a web app for learning quantum computing with Guided tutorials in terms of quantum games at different levels.

Each level is built with better visualizations and feedbacks to learn different concepts from superposition, qubit architectures, gates, modalities, trapped ion, quantum annealing and many more.

The website link is https://qclab.pages.dev/dashboard?utm_source=github&utm_medium=social

I am happy to collaborate to build games and bringing this.

[benjimaclellan]

Hi @dhanaabhirajk - very cool website and learning tool! Do you have specific ideas of how we could collaborate? I'd be happy to discuss possible ways to mix this with our teaching & outreach efforts. Looking through the different tutorials/games, a couple ideas could be:

• adding OQD's Analog layer interface in alongside the Qiskit SDK section, so that learners could also learn about analog quantum computing and quantum simulation
• we could hook the hardware demo into the "Execute" button of some of the levels, to give learners an idea of what these gate-based models correspond to in hardware control pulses

[benjimaclellan]

Hey @CodeMaverick2 - your idea sounds good, feel free to open a PR when you're ready!

[learningdungeon]

Claiming Bounty 1

Hi I’m Noor, a Qiskit Advocate. I’m claiming Bounty 1 and am currently developing an interactive teaching tool

titled: "The Trapped-Ion Grover Maze"

I am building this on top of the existing NiceGUI framework and hardware interfaces. Looking forward to submitting my PR soon.

@benjimaclellan Hi

Collaboration Idea: Connecting Gate-Based Logic to OQD Hardware Pulses (Grover Ion-Maze)
github repo: GATES @learningdungeon

I have developed a Grover Ion-Maze built with NiceGUI and Qiskit that addresses this exact bridge. In my tool:

The Logic: Users must manually construct a Grover Oracle by 'sandwiching' target states with X-pulses to align them for the entangling LOCK gate.

The Hardware Hook: I have mapped the digital X-gates directly to the OQD laser intensities and the calibration phase to the trap position.

The Goal: To move away from 'black box' oracles and show learners the actual physical pulse-marking required in a trapped-ion system.

I’d love to discuss how I can integrate this 'Pulse-Level' maze into your existing teaching suite. It seems like a natural fit for the 'Execute' button logic you mentioned.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on how we can collaborate!

Best regards,

Noor
Qiskit Advocate ...

[dhanaabhirajk]

Hi @benjimaclellan — thanks! I’d love to collaborate on integrating QC Lab with the OQD teaching demo.

Based on your suggestions, we can

Extend QC Lab’s existing "Execute" button so users can choose between:

• Simulator mode (current behavior)
• OQD Hardware mode (via Device / Lasers / Trap / Camera interface)

This would translate tutorial steps and gate operations into hardware pulse controls (laser intensity, trap positioning, measurement capture).

Add a new section in QC Lab introducing analog quantum computing concepts using OQD’s abstraction layer, including:

• pulse-level control visualization
• laser amplitude → gate mapping
• trap modulation → entanglement interaction

I can start with a minimal working prototype that connects a basic tutorial level (e.g., superposition via H gate) to laser intensity control.

Would you prefer:
A) integrating QC Lab directly into this repo, or
B) keeping QC Lab external and adding an integration layer?

Looking forward to contributing!